Ken Layne thinks the Letterman/Koppel debate of the last couple of weeks was a publicity stunt. If it was, it backfired, at least for me. I am watching Nightline every night now. I must admit I had almost forgotten it was out there…

– Democrats new found fascination with steel tariffs. I can even understand why they are carping about it- Enron blew up, the economy is recovering, war is going well, and Tom Daschle has his tail tucked between his legs. Matt Yglesias has been railing against the tariff decision for a solid week now, and I thought it was a matter of principle (and I think it still is on Matt’s part) until this quote:

MEGAN MCARDLE WRITES OF THE steel issue that she doesn’t think that many of the Democrats ranting about the tariffs would be saying a word if Gore had done it. I can’t promise you what I would have done, but I think the point here is that Gore wouldn’t have done it. Clinton could have done this last fall and it probably would’ve won Gore West Virginia (and with it, the election). Gore could’ve promised to do it, same effect. But they didn’t do it.

So Bush is doubly bad because he is in office to make a bad decision that Gore and Clinton might have but did not make because they are not in office to make the decision and because they did not see any political advanatage in it. Bush is also to be spanked bad because he did it despite his stance on free trade for what Yglesias infers is political advantage, but if Clinton and Gore had done it, it would have been to be suspected, either because of a poor ideological stance or because we are used to them making crass maneuvers for partisan advantage.

I think the obvious is clear (to steal a horrible quote from an old teacher). Steel tariff’s are just something for the left to start picking away at Bush et. al. Expect it to go the way of the recent Enron smearing, and I think Yglesias is right- if Clinton or Gore had done this, Dems would have said nothing, the same Repub’s (George Will, Novak, NRO, etc) would all be calling it a horrible decision- but they would be dismissed for being part of the vast right wing conspiracy.

I have no idea how many civilians were killed in Afghanistan. Nor do you. That TechnoBabble site is no more credible than the Taliban.

Yeah, Iain’s careful analysis and de-bunking of the bogus stats (more of which, in greater detail can be found on Iain’s website– complete with other links to other sites for more info on the topic) is no more believable than the Taliban. Har.

Victor Davis Hanson has a nice little essay on what ungrateful bastards the Kuwaitis have become. When I was over there in 1991, they were very generous and nice to us, the American soldiers who saved their behinds. Now they have turned into your run-of-the-mill anti-American schmucks that you frequently find in other Muslim nations and at EU headquarters.

I DON’T KNOW how many sour-pussed Olympics-haters we have in our country. I don’t know what percentage of Americans is unmoved by the work put in, the opening ceremonies, the personal stories, the pride in being host, and the struggle for individual and team glory. I don’t know how many sneer at the whole panorama. I only know this: I’m one of them.

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00John Colehttps://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgJohn Cole2002-03-11 20:01:222002-03-11 20:01:22Every time I hear George

William Arkin has become so increasingly and reflexively shrill and anti-Bush in recent months that I think the only reason Chris Matthews invites hiom on Hardball is to make himself look calm and knowledgeable by comparison.

At an rate, if I hear one more thing about this ‘nuclear use doctrine’ or whatever the hell it is called that was ‘leaked’ to the LA Times last week, I am gonna explode. Note to paranoid newscasters and alarmist editors. The U.S. has people that work in the Pentagon. One of their jobs is WAR-GAMING. When you WAR-GAME you come up with new ideas that might lead to new doctrine or could become CONTINGENCY plans. You try to GAME out new scenarios, likely scenarios, and then you try to determine UNLIKELY scenarios. Just because something appears on a piece of paper somewhere with a Pentagon address does not mean we are going to nuke the next Palestinian to attack Israel or the next Russian who slaps an import tariff on Smirnoff.

BTW- you fruity bastards at the LA Times can stoip digging your fallout shelter. If you think this is the first time the government has ever looked at utilizing nuclear weapons, you are as DUMB as you are NAIVE.

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00John Colehttps://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgJohn Cole2002-03-11 19:58:292002-03-11 19:58:29William Arkin has become so

The folks at Protein Wisdom award Charles Barkley with their Al Sharpton Award for Idiocy in Race-baiting for his comments in the latest Sports Illustrated. I get SI, and I gotta admit that those remarks stood out as stupid, but they were a very minor part of the entire story. Charles had some other great quotes, including this one about Enron:

“Almost all those politicians took money from Enron, and there they are holding hearings. That’s like O.J. Simpson getting in the Rae Carruth jury pool.”

I watched the CBS special on 9/11 last night (Does anyone know what it was called? Maybe just 9/11), and I have several comments.

– For some reason, I twinged every time I saw 9/11, brought to you by NEXTEL. I am not one of those fruity anti-capitalist bastards who rails against industry, but I just don’t think that if I were a Nextel officer I would allow that sort of word association to be a possibility.

– The Fire Department reminded me of my old platoon. Buncha tough guys with big hearts doing jobs no one else will do for less money than they should be paid. That kinda comaraderie is hard to find anywhere outside the military and para-military groups).

– The sound of the impact from the jumpers was horrifying.

– The two Frenchmen that filmed the show reminded me what I had already learned when I lived in Germany for three years. Most Europeans are good people, and very much like us. They love America just like we love Paris and we love London. There really is no great animus between us or towards each other. It is their leaders who are the twerps we despise….

– All I could really think when it was all over (despite being drained and thinking it had been VERY tastefully done) was thos F

Bravenet is back up and funtional, so I have switched back to them. I had 2400 hits last week, which, btw- was my 2nd best week so far. At any rate because of bravenet going down, and me not switching to a new service for several days, the exact number of people who have come to this sight is now a fantasy- although probably more accurate than a Bellesiles book. You get what you pay for, right?

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00John Colehttps://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgJohn Cole2002-03-11 17:35:352002-03-11 17:35:35Bravenet is back up and

This is why I have not posted much lately. Every time I try to do something, blogger dies. Supposedly (according to status.blogger.com), I am able to post images now. However, there is no UPLOAD image button like there was last week. Weird how blogger works. Last week, there is an upload image icon that DOES NOT WORK. This week, apparently you can upload pictures/images, BUT THERE IS NO ICON.

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00John Colehttps://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgJohn Cole2002-03-11 17:25:142002-03-11 17:25:14This is why I have

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00John Colehttps://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgJohn Cole2002-03-11 17:02:542002-03-11 17:02:54Did not post much from

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00John Colehttps://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgJohn Cole2002-03-09 21:12:152002-03-09 21:12:15Sympathy for the Devil? According